1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein are generally related to a field of histology. The embodiments herein are particularly related to tissue processing and slide staining devices. The embodiments herein are more particularly related a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a robotic arm having three degrees of freedom to perform tissue processing and slide staining simultaneously for several sample baskets with similar or different processing methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Histology is a science associated with a processing of tissues for examination or analysis related to cellular morphology, chemical composition, tissue structure or composition or other tissue characteristics. The examination results are used by the pathologists to obtain an information about a cell structure and to diagnose illnesses. The tissue processing halts the degradation of cellular structure and stabilizes the cellular characteristics. Further, the tissue processing sufficiently hardens the tissue so that extremely fine segments are cut therefrom for an analysis purpose. Hence, the tissues taken from the body must be processed in the laboratory before the sample is analyzed for diagnostic or testing purposes. Fixation, dehydration, clearing and impregnation or infiltration are the four general steps that are performed during a processing of a tissue sample in the laboratory. These steps are effectuated by submerging the tissue samples in different solutions to produce chemical reactions. The tissue samples are processed in a qualitative and uniform manner such that the analytical results and diagnosis are consistent and accurate.
In general, the tissue processing cassettes or baskets are used for performing the biological tissue specimens. The tissue processing cassettes typically include a rectangular, box with an opening at the top side. the box has a base has a perforated bottom wall and a removable perforated cover or lid. The cassettes are made up of a moldable plastic to resist a damage or a reaction from the processing solvents and acids or reaction with the tissue specimen. The tissue specimen is typically placed within an enclosure formed by the base and lid. Later, the tissue specimen is processed in various solutions that are appropriate to the tissue and the examination.
In the conventional tissue processing equipment, the basket containing the tissue samples and the lids of containers are connected to a robotic arm which moves the sample basket from one container to another one. By connecting the basket and lids to the robotic arm, the conventional tissue processing equipment causes some crucial disadvantages in run time. The disadvantages include a limitation in processing a number of sample baskets that are simultaneously processed by the equipment. A pre-set number of containers, for example, less than 10 percent of the containers are utilized during a sequential process while other 90% which are filled with liquid/reagent remain useless. The equipment does not accept new samples while processing the previous samples. Due to these disadvantages, the laboratory faces serious problems in case of emergency.
The conventional tissue processing equipment usually utilizes higher volume containers to compensate for a low throughput caused by their sequential or limited parallel processing. As a result, these tissue processing equipment suffers from a low quality tissue processing and high liquid/reagent consumption problems. Low quality tissue processing problem is caused by keeping different kind of tissues with different absorption rates in one sample basket and running the same process for all of them. The high liquid/reagent consumption problem is caused due to an inefficient utilization or underutilization of the liquids used by high volume containers. In a conventional rotary tissue processing equipment, all the container lids are connected to the robotic arm. Hence, the container lids are frequently opened/closed unnecessarily for each move thereby leading to higher liquid evaporation and consumption. Also, the conventional fixation and dehydration methods of tissue specimens are time consuming and labor intensive when the tissues are processed manually. In some cases, these methods utilize potentially toxic substances which release malodorous vapor.
Hence there is a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a robotic arm having three degrees of freedom to simultaneously performs tissue processing and slide staining for several sample baskets with similar or different processing methods. Further, there is a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a three degree freedom movement robotic arm that is not connected to lids and baskets and which accepts new baskets of samples while processing or staining previous samples. Furthermore, there is a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a robotic arm having three degrees of freedom to provide a higher throughput when compared with the conventional tissue processors. There is also a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a robotic arm having three degrees of freedom to accept emergency samples without any conflicts with previous tissue processes. There is also a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a robotic arm having three degrees of freedom to reduce a liquid evaporation rate by eliminating unnecessary lid opening/closing operations. There is also a need for a tissue processor and a slide staining equipment with a robotic arm having three degrees of freedom to provide a user friendly interface having appropriate callouts to guide a user during programming/running process. There is also a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a three degree freedom movement robotic arm that automatically chooses a similar reagent container when the reagent station defined by the program is already occupied by another basket. There is also a need for tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a three degree freedom movement robotic arm that is capable of fixing a position of a lid on the container and prioritizing the tasks to avoid any possible conflicts. There is also a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment with a filtration system and an exhaust facility to prevent toxic gas emissions. There is also a need for a tissue processing and slide staining equipment equipped with standard signs and alarms to provide an indication to the user about the errors and to protect the user from any possible harm.
The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.